Top 10 Countries With the Most Padel Courts in 2026

Padel has gone from a niche Spanish pastime to one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, and court counts show it clearly. Here's how the top 10 countries stack up in 2026, and what's driving the growth (and in one case, the crash) in each.

Spain is in a category of its own

Spain isn't just first, it has nearly double the courts of second-placed Italy, and more courts than the next four countries on this list combined. More than 1 in 10 Spaniards play padel regularly, and court density is the highest anywhere in the world. Padel is Spain's second most-played sport after football, and the sport's commercial and competitive center of gravity, from equipment brands to the Premier Padel calendar, still runs through Spanish cities.

Italy and Argentina: the sport's other two heartlands

Italy has become Europe's fastest-growing padel market outside Spain, with courts roughly doubling over the past few years as clubs convert old tennis facilities and build new indoor complexes. Argentina, padel's other founding nation alongside Mexico, has a different growth pattern: fewer new clubs but an extraordinarily deep playing culture. It's the country behind several of the men's tour's biggest stars, including Agustín Tapia, Federico Chingotto, and Franco Stupaczuk, at a rate no other nation outside Spain matches.

Sweden's #4 spot comes with a warning label

Sweden's place in the top 5 isn't the clean growth story a court-count table makes it look like. Between 2018 and 2022, investors built thousands of indoor courts across the country, in some cases in towns too small to ever fill them, on the assumption that demand would keep compounding forever. It didn't: by the end of 2024, more than 100 Swedish padel facilities had closed and roughly 90 padel companies had filed for bankruptcy, with one of the country's largest operators, We Are Padel, shutting 50 of its 63 clubs. Industry estimates put the capital destroyed at close to €500 million.

The market is stabilizing now, with weaker operators gone and the clubs still standing built around actual local demand instead of speculation. But Sweden has become the standard cautionary tale for any market currently in a padel building boom, the UK in particular, since a growing number of industry observers see the same overbuilding pattern repeating there. Raw court count doesn't tell you whether a market is healthy, only how many courts got built.

The Netherlands and Belgium: steadier growth

The Netherlands and Belgium show a calmer version of the same Northern European story: dense populations, high disposable income, and a shortage of existing racket-sport facilities that padel clubs have been filling at a more measured pace than Sweden's investor-driven rush.

What's next: the countries climbing the list

Outside the top 10, the fastest court growth right now is in the Gulf (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar), the UK, the US, and parts of Asia, markets that had close to zero courts five years ago and are now seeing double-digit annual growth. Some of that is genuine, demand-driven expansion; some of it looks a lot like Sweden circa 2020. If you're weighing whether one of these markets is worth investing in, our guide to the best countries to invest in padel right now breaks down the opportunity, and the risk, market by market.

Court counts are approximate figures compiled from Statista, FIP market reports, and padel industry press for 2025-2026; exact numbers vary by source and change monthly as new clubs open and, in some markets, close.

Looking to build or equip a club in a growing market? Check our guide on how much it costs to build a padel court in 2026, or browse our custom padel equipment for clubs.